Exploring the role‐based challenges of providing culturally inclusive health care for maternal and child health nurses: Qualitative findings

Abstract

Abstract Aims To explore how maternal and child health nurses (MCHNs) working in a specific regionally located service perceive and experience delivering health care to a diverse population. Design Qualitative exploratory study. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with MCHNs (N = 6) working in a particular regionally located service. Data were selectively coded, categorized and interpreted through a process of argument writing influenced by poststructuralist thought and Foucauldian conceptualizations of power. Results The data analysed were interpreted into the following categories: (a) system‐level expectations of the maternal and child health role; (b) what these system‐level expectations mean for the role and practice of MCHNs; and (c) what MCHNs themselves report prioritizing in their work. The analysis suggests that a substantial hindrance to the development and support of culturally safe, inclusive and quality maternal and child health care lies in the very ways contemporary health institutions seek to discipline the routine practices of MCHNs.

Keywords

• cultural issues
• family care
• health services research
• inequalities in health
• maternity nursing
• multicultural issues